Every Sunday, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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The story that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan was meant to shock. Some were probably even scandalized by it.
Jesus tells the story in response to a question: “Who is my neighbor?”
It begins like this. A Jew was walking on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a notoriously dangerous journey to undertake. Along the way, this good man is robbed, beaten and left for dead.
He is a man in need. Untended, he will die.
A priest passes him by — but he doesn’t want to become ritually unclean by touching the body of a person who may be dead. He makes sure to avoid encountering the man.
A Levite passes him by — he also doesn’t want to get involved — and who knows, it may be a person who is not a member of his tribe. He crosses to the other side of the road.
It is a Samaritan who stops and takes care of the Jewish man’s needs. The Samaritan doesn’t care about nationality, religion or political persuasion — he sees a human who needs him, a person in an unfortunate and desperate situation. The Samaritan is there for him.
And that is exactly what is so disturbing to those who were listening to Jesus tell this story, who were mostly Jewish. It was a Samaritan, a man who was an outcast among Jews, a pariah, an unwelcome guest who shows love to the Jewish man. He has become the neighbor to the person who is not a Samaritan. That means that he is also the neighbor that the Jews must love as much as they love themselves, for as they are told, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus would have gotten a lot of nasty comments online for his story if he had told it today using different adversarial groups to push home his point!
If we want to be good residents of God’s neighborhood — a place that Jesus would call the Kingdom — then we must be willing to lend a hand whenever we encounter a person who is in need. In fact, don’t look at a person’s race, religion, political persuasion, legal status, or way of life. Just be a Good Samaritan: even if the other person is not from your tribe. The neighborhood of God is large enough for all of us.
Shocking!
Have a blessed weekend everyone.